Page 132 - Bonhams Hong Kong The Skinner Moon Flasks

122
AN EXCEPTIONALLY RARE IMPERIAL FAMILLE ROSE
YELLOW-GROUND ‘FLORAL’ BOWL
Qianlong six-character mark and of the period
Finely enamelled in vibrant colours of pink, white, blue, coral-red
and green with various blossoms including lily, narcissus, lotus and
anemone, all borne on dense leafy scrolls with further florets reserved
on a bright yellow ground, the interior decorated with five iron-red bats,
the base with a six-character kaishu mark in underglaze blue.
15.1cm (6in) diam.

HK$800,000 - 1,200,000
US$100,000 - 150,000

清乾隆 黃地粉彩花卉纏枝紋盌 青花「大清乾隆年製」楷書款

Provenance:
An important European private collection formed during the first half of
the 20th century, and thence by descent
This lot is the pair to the bowl sold in these rooms on 29 November
2016, lot 25

來源：
重要歐洲私人收藏，蒐集於二十年代上半葉，後由其家族繼承（與香
港邦瀚斯曾售出一例原為一對，2016年11月29日，拍品25）

The European collector (1880-1952) was an entrepreneur with early Superbly enamelled with full flowering blossoms, demonstrating the
links to Russia and Japan. From 1911-1917 he lived in St. Petersburg exceptional level of aesthetic and technical craftsmanship achieved
where he owned a company selling high-quality stainless steel, and during the Qianlong reign, the same design is also shared by a
where he learned the Russian language. Although he first visited number of bowls with a Qianlong underglaze-blue seal mark as well
Japan in 1907, it was in 1920 that he returned home to set up a sales as by bowls with a Qianlong blue-enamel four-character seal mark.
operation similar to that in St. Petersburg which had been halted For bowls with underglaze-blue six-character seal marks, see one
three years earlier due to the political upheaval. He spent several in the British Museum, London (14cm diam.), illustrated by H.Moss,
years in Osaka and Kobe, when his interest in Japanese works of By Imperial Command, Hong Kong, 1976, pl.6; another example
art commenced. Once again he realised the benefit of learning the from the Qing Court collection, Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated
language in order to facilitate the acquiring of works of art. The result in The All Complete Qianlong: The Aesthetic Tastes of the Qing
was a fine collection of woodblock prints, netsuke, inro, porcelain (in Emperor Gaozong, Taipei, 2013, pp.220-221, pl.II-3.28; another one
particular Kakiemon vases), swords, lacquer and silver. It was in the is in the Nanjing Museum (18.5cm diam.), illustrated in Treasures in
1930s when back in Japan, that he extended his collection to include the Royalty: The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty,
Chinese art. Fine porcelain, Tang silver, and early bronzes were his Shanghai, 2003, p.243. For an example of a blue-enamel four-
particular interests, and he studied these subjects both in books and character seal mark bowl, see Geng Baochang, Ming Qing Ciqi
through his discussions with his friend Kusaka Shogado, who was Jianding, Hong Kong, 1993, p.281, fig.485.
a leading dealer based in Kyoto, and from whom he made many
purchases. He visited Japan for the last time in 1938, when he bought This decorative design on bowls continued into the Daoguang period,
numerous items for his collection. indicating the particular popularity of this design at the Imperial court;
see S.G.Valenstein et al., The World’s Great Collections: Oriental
The present bowl is exceptionally rare and only four other examples Ceramics, Vol.11: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Tokyo,
with a Qianlong regular kaishu six-character mark and of the period 1982, pl.163; see also a pair of famille rose yellow-ground ‘floral’
appear to have been published; one in the Shanghai Museum, bowls, Daoguang seal marks and of the period, which was sold at
illustrated by Wang, Zhongguo Taoqi, Jingdezhen Caihui Ciqi, Sotheby’s Hong Kong on 5 October 2011, lot 2069.
Shanghai, pl.III and Chugoku Toji Zenshu, vol.21, pl.111; the second
in the Wang Xing Lou collection, see Imperial Perfection: The Palace
Porcelain of Three Chinese Emperors, Kangxi - Yongzheng - Qianlong,
Hong Kong, 2004, pp.158-159, no.57; the third was previously with
S.Marchant & Son, Ltd., London, in 2006, and later sold at Sotheby’s
Hong Kong on 4 April 2012, lot 3190; and the fourth example, the pair
to the present lot, was sold in these rooms on 29 November 2016,
lot 25.

74 | BONHAMS